Love is in the air

It seems somewhat appropriate that we should devote some time to affairs of the heart in mid-February.

St. Valentine was martyred in the year 296. In 496 Pope Gelasius I named February 14 as Saint Valentine’s Day. Some 1,521 years later messages of affection, love and devotion are still exchanged around the world.

There is an Irish connection.

On November 10, 1836, the remains of Valentine, along with a small vessel tinged with his blood and some other artefacts, arrived in Dublin and were brought in solemn procession to Whitefriar Street Church where they remain.

At this time of the year, love-seeking Irish turn up at this site looking for help in finding that special someone.

However, unless you have met the absolutely perfect partner, success will involve accepting someone’s human flaws.

Sometimes these flaws can work against our financial well-being.

A question to get the brain working:

A hurley and sliotar together cost €11.

The hurley costs €10 more than the sliotar.

Question: How much is the sliotar?

You may be surprised to learn that 90% of people get the answer to this question wrong.

There are predictable reasons why people get the answer to this question wrong. There are also predictable – and avoidable – reasons why people make mistakes when planning for their financial futures.

Whoever coined the phrase that “youth is wasted on the young” must have had at least one eye on their personal finances.

We all tend to perform better when working towards a goal or target. The sooner you start addressing your financial targets and objectives the better. An ideal starting point is to work through a process that starts with an assessment of where you are today with your finances.

This can be done for you by Metis Ireland and the video below outlines the process followed. Most people find this overview helps them clarify their objectives and make better decisions.

We can safely say that virtually all people who have built their plan have found it of great value.

An objective for Metis Ireland is to get more people addressing these matters earlier in life. Hopefully, we are not striving for a perfection that does not exist!

Unfortunately, we are all subject to predictable human biases and flaws. One such bias is that we take mental shortcuts and simplify calculations.

Most of us will “calculate” that the sliotar above costs €1 only to be embarrassed when we work out the correct answer later.

It so happens that these biases mean we are slow to address our financial futures even if we know we should. And, even if we intend to do it some day soon.

We will return to the topic of human biases in the future.

In the meantime, you should arrange to commence a financial plan. The best approach is to commit to a no-obligation review meeting in the future. Pick a date that is far enough away not to cause stress now and then stick to that date!

Disclaimer

All content provided in these blog posts is intended for information purposes only and should not be interpreted as financial advice. You should always engage the services of a fully qualified independent financial adviser before entering any financial contract. Metis Ireland Financial Planning Ltd t/a Metis Ireland will not be held responsible for any actions taken as a result of reading these blog posts